Lightning Fill In The Blank

Now it is time to move on to our final game, lighting fill in the blank. Each of our players will have 60 seconds in which to answer as many fill in the blank questions as he or she can. Each correct answer now worth two points. Carl, can you give us the scores?

SAGAL: Okay, we have randomly selected Alonzo to go first. Alonzo, the clock will start when I begin your first question. Fill in the blank. This week, the U.S. expanded its sanctions on Russia to include the holdings of billionaires in blank's financial circle.

ALONZO BODDEN: Putin.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Towns across the Southeast faced flooding and destruction caused after the area was hit by at least 50 blanks.

BODDEN: Tornadoes.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Thursday, former President George W. Bush says he hopes his brother Jeb blanks.

BODDEN: Wins as president.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: To welcome President Obama on his trip to the Philippines, musicians performed the traditional American song, blank.

BODDEN: Oh, boy. Welcome Obama?

SAGAL: "Theme from Beverly Hills Cop."

(LAUGHTER)

ADAM FELBER: (Singing) Do-do, do-da-doo. Excellent.

SAGAL: After two years together this week, royal bachelor Prince blank broke up with his girlfriend Cressida Bonas.

BODDEN: Yeah.

(LAUGHTER)

BODDEN: What?

SAGAL: His name is not Prince Blank. His name is Prince...

BODDEN: Oh, Harry.

SAGAL: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: The soap opera "The Young and the Restless" led the way with 26 nominations for daytime blanks.

BODDEN: Emmys.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: A suspected hijacker banging on the cockpit door...

(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)

SAGAL: ...in a Virgin Australia flight turned out to be blank.

BODDEN: Looking for the bathroom.

SAGAL: Exactly right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: He was pretty drunk, too. He was looking for the bathroom. Pilots issued a hijacking alert after the Australian man started beating on the cockpit door demanding to be let in. He was quickly handcuffed and arrested. Told police it was all a mistake. He thought that was the toilet. To make things worse, when they wouldn't let him in, he yelled, open the door or I'll explode.

(LAUGHTER)

PAULA POUNDSTONE: Oh, no.

FELBER: (Laughter).

SAGAL: Carl, how did Alonzo do on our quiz?

KASELL: Well, Alonzo had six correct answers for 12 more points. He now has 15 points and he has the lead.

SAGAL: Well done, Alonzo. Not bad.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: All right, Paula, you're up next. Fill in the blank.

POUNDSTONE: Woo.

SAGAL: Because of a Republican-led filibuster on Wednesday, the Senate failed to pass a bill raising the blank to ten dollars and ten cents.

POUNDSTONE: Oh, that minimum wage.

>>SAGAL Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: The National Transportation Safety Board called for reform after two freight trains blanked this week in Maryland and Virginia.

POUNDSTONE: Derailed.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: New research shows that the results of many research studies may be skewed by the test subject reacting to blank.

(LAUGHTER)

POUNDSTONE: Treats.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: No. The smell...

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: ...Of male scientists.

POUNDSTONE: The smell of male scientists...

SAGAL: Apparently, they react differently.

POUNDSTONE: ...Is, it influences someone's answer to a...

SAGAL: Yes.

POUNDSTONE: ...To a survey?

SAGAL: Yes.

BODDEN: Did you ever meet a scientist?

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Anyway.

POUNDSTONE: Yeah.

SAGAL: Nerds of the world rejoiced after Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford were among those named as cast members for the new blank movie.

POUNDSTONE: All right, I'm going to say Smurf.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Star Wars, Paula. Tourists flocked...

(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)

SAGAL: ...To Trout River, Newfoundland to watch a whale blank.

POUNDSTONE: In Trout River, Newfoundland?

SAGAL: Yes.

POUNDSTONE: It was in a river?

SAGAL: Yeah.

POUNDSTONE: To watch him get wedged in.

SAGAL: No.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: To watch him potentially explode. So you can't afford to go on a proper whale-watching tour? Afraid you won't see a whale? We've got one for you that will definitely be there. Trout River is offering tourists the opportunity to watch an 81-foot-long blue whale carcass decompose and perhaps explode from the gases building up inside.

POUNDSTONE: Well, I mean, they're offering them the opportunity? What's to stop somebody from looking at it?

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Well, they're promoting it.

POUNDSTONE: A carcass decomposing.

SAGAL: They're promoting it, saying, come to Newfoundland. You get to see this amazing thing.

FELBER: Come to Newfoundland. So little happens you can watch a whale decompose.

(LAUGHTER)

POUNDSTONE: Wait a minute. So doesn't that put off a bad smell?

SAGAL: It does.

POUNDSTONE: Okay, wouldn't that make people answer questions oddly?

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Carl, how did Paula do on our quiz?

KASELL: Paula had two correct answers for four more points.

(LAUGHTER)

KASELL: She now has seven points, but Alonzo Bodden still has the lead with 15.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: How many, then, does Adam need to win?

KASELL: Six to tie, seven to win outright.

SAGAL: Here we go, Adam. This is for the game. Last Sunday, thousands of people crowded into St. Peter's Square as Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II were blanked.

FELBER: Canonized.

SAGAL: Right, as saints.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: Officials in Malaysia revealed Thursday that it took four hours for a search to begin for the missing blank.

FELBER: Airplane.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the EPA does indeed have the right to limit pollution drifting from plants that burn blank.

FELBER: Coal.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: On Monday, the host of CBS's "Late Late Show," blank, announced he would be leaving the show in December.

FELBER: Craig Ferguson.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

POUNDSTONE: Terrible news.

SAGAL: A Colorado woman was busted for faking her own kidnapping last week when she blanked.

FELBER: Signed a ransom note.

SAGAL: No, when she showed up in person to collect the ransom.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: 62 students in New Jersey were arrested on Thursday for their involvement in a blank.

FELBER: A prank.

SAGAL: Right.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

SAGAL: A British man had his stereo equipment...

(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)

SAGAL: ...Confiscated by police because he blanked.

FELBER: He would not stop playing Celine Dion.

SAGAL: In fact, yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)

POUNDSTONE: Woah.

(APPLAUSE)

SAGAL: Playing my heart will go on nonstop for days is both cruel and unusual and put Gareth Davies in violation of noise ordinances six times. After six times they take your stereo away.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: So I guess they don't have the death penalty over there.

(LAUGHTER)

SAGAL: Carl, Carl, did Adam do well enough to win?

KASELL: Adam had six correct answers for 12 more points. He now has 15 points. This means that Alonzo Bodden and Adam Felber are this week's co-champions.

(APPLAUSE)

POUNDSTONE: Woo hoo.

SAGAL: All right, well done. In just a minute, we'll ask our panelists what George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin's first fight will be about. But first, let me tell you that support for NPR comes from NPR stations. And Gevalia, over 150 years of Swedish expertise dedicated to the art of coffee-making. Gevalia, rich, never bitter.

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